Out at college now. My parents are taking care of the fish while I'm away.

Thanks for everyone's help this summer. Everything stabilized in early August. I lost the Pictus right before that, but after that, everything stabilized.

Living happily together are 3 White Clouds, 1 Cory, 1 Otto, and 1 ...

I'm thinking it might have to do with the humidity outside. I noticed some small fuzz in my goldfish tank now and that has been stable for over a year.
I also noticed something similar on my car windows last night.

The signs suck in this particular shop, but the fish are great.

Just ran up to Petsmart to check out the White Clouds. Can't beat the price at 99 cents each. I came home with 3.
I'm going to see how they do and then buy 3 more if they do ok.

The White Clouds sound pretty interesting. They should liven up my tank a bit.

I found a store that has some great looking Corys. They are active and look healthy. The only complaint with them is that their signs suck.
They still have a Pictus labeled as an Angelicus Catfish. They still have a ...

Everything is still looking good. It is strange, the Cory has a bunch of that white junk on him in the morning, but then later in the day it goes away.
I can't really tell if it is growing on him or just rubbing off from the plants.

I'm beginning to think against the idea of getting some common community fish.
My original goal was to the have a tank full of catfish. I'd hate to give that goal up now just because I had a rough two weeks.

I'm now going to use my head more and not buy catfish that just look cool or sound cool ...

I too am not using medication as the first defense. I try to avoid having to medicate. That is why I changed the gravel.
It is tough setting up your first catfish tank, as things that would go perfectly fine for other fish (ie size of the gravel) might be very bad for a catfish.
I learn something ...

DONE!
Went pretty much straight forward. I bought sand, but that started to clog my filter. So then I brought it back and got some finer gravel. The particles are much smaller than the gravel I had in there. I've used this small gravel in my gold fish tank and my dad uses it in his angel fish tank ...

Sounds pretty straight forward.

I don't have several tubs but I do have something to scoop water with and another ten gallon tank. So I could fill that with the tank water and put them in there.

This gravel has given me trouble right from the start. When I initially set up the tank some wispy ...

Cause and effect.....
You are both reaching for the medicine bottles so frequently to treat fish which keep getting sick - ask yourselves why. All the fish you keep are hardy and not problematic. The key to preventing all your disease and water problems is correct water/ tank management. If your ...

Not sure about this, but would it be a bad idea to get your common Feeder Minnows? They are quick and a bit bigger than tetras. And I guess it would be nice to save 3 Minnows that normally would be fish food.
The only thing I am worried about is the conditions that they are kept in. Aren't those ...

I think stores also need to train their employees better. Even at my local Petsmart I have seen the workers use nets to scoop up Catfish. They sometimes get caught, and they gently remove them from the net.
However, if they were trained to use a container to catch the cats, then this wouldn't happen ...

I put in some Pimafix last night and that seemed to do the trick, as he looks better this morning. He didn't have any swimming issues, and he has been eating.

I have them in a 10 gallon right now, but I am looking to switch to a 20 eventually.

They are peaceful only to tankmates too large to be eaten, and can be quite territorial with conspecifics if not enough hiding spaces are provided. Small tetras may be considered snacks.

I have to agree...they can get very territorial. I had an Asian Bumblebee and he was really neat looking. Only ...

Latest Update with Good News and Bad News:

The Good News:
Checked on the Pictus and I have to say in the last 12 hrs there has been even more improvement. He just has a little pink around the mouth and gills. Everything else is nearly back to normal.

The Bad News:
It appears my Spotted Cory has ...

Yeah, I meant Zebra Danio.

I had problems with Neon Tetras in our first tank...they never seemed to last. Our water isn't too good here either.

The Danios seem to be pretty easy and the Long Fins look a bit bigger.

I saw at the store that the Guppies require salt.

I have one Spotted Cory...is ...

I was just thinking that could be a problem. I went to Petsmart and saw that many of the Tetras were closer to the bottom. And they are small enough to be Pictus or Syno food.

Any success with Fancy Guppies? They seem to hang out at the top more and are a bit larger.

So right now it seems to be ...

You said you took the filter off the tank to treat the ich (usually don't need to do so unless it contains carbon). How long was the filter off the tank?

Where did you put the filter during this time? Was it running on another tank?

When was the water test done? Was it prior to putting the filter ...

The Danios do look nice, but they do sound like they might get into the Catfish's territory.

I really liked my Ghost Catfish, but they were the first ones to go as soon as my tank became unbalanced. The good thing about them was that though they were Catfish, they did not bother eating the sinking ...

Thanks for the reply.

I've had the Pictus since March, the Syno and Otto since Mid-May, and the Cory since early June.

I took care of the ich with the Jungle Buddies earlier on the weekend, and none of the fish are showing any symptoms anymore. The Otto had it the worst, and now he seems to be ...

Thanks for that site. My local Petsmart has some Long Finned Blue Danios. I'm planning on buy 3 or 4.

I also need to buy another Cory, I am down to one right now and since the other one has died it has been looking less active. This might be just because the tank is still settling again.

Do I ...

Right now I am having some health issues in my tank, but I am confident that it will soon be sorted out.
I am looking to replace my dead cats with something new sometime in late July. (This should give everything time to stabilize again)

I want to get something that will hang out more at the upper ...

Well i just don't have any luck it seems tonight...here is another try at that photo:

In the last 48 hours I have lost 1 Upside Down, 1 Cory, and 2 Ghosts (and the 3rd is on his way out)

The Upside Down had ICH so I treated the tank with meds. I also noticed my Otto had it really bad. It all cleared up and I thought for once everything turned out ok (except the death of the Upside ...

After reading his actions above, if I were to speak to a customer in a similar way. "mam, I do this everday, I think I know" I am pretty sure I would be fired too.
And when you are being paid to take care of fish, what do you expect but to be fired if you harm one.

I'm thinking about doing a species tank one time when I am at school. I'm restricted on space, so a small 10 gallon of Ghosts might not be such a bad idea.

He is pretty small right now. The price was a bit expensive, but not too bad...$12.99 (I know there are way more expensive fish out there, but that does make him the most expensive fish in my tank)

I was looking to get a Cory, but it seems I got something a bit interesting out of it. Couldn't be ...

Not sure if this has been asked before, but out of all of the catfish that you own, which one is your favorite?

In my tank I have 1 Otto, 1 Pictus, 1 we're still trying to ID, 1 upside down, and 3 Ghosts.

I have to say the Ghosts are my favorite, as they are the most active and the most ...

I don't have a problem with the size...I will eventually move him to a bigger tank if he gets to large.
It is too bad though that many will buy this fish thinking they are getting a small Cory and in a short time they have a fish that is 10 inches in length.

Here are two images that I was able to get (i found that taking pictures of airplanes is alot easier than fish, atleast the planes stay in the same flight path)